HIST 421 Major Topics in American Immigration History
This junior seminar walks you through major topics in American immigration history and helps you construct a research paper of your own choice. It is divided into two parts: in the first six weeks, we will go through classic and cutting-edge readings about topics such as citizenship, ethnicity, the construction of race, racial management, whiteness, chain migration, and borderland in the American experience. Along the way, you will be advised to develop a smaller, historically specific topic for your paper. The second part involves an organized writing process: we will meet to discuss the primary and secondary sources you use, and then build a research proposal and a detailed outline. By the end of March, you should have the first ten pages of the paper ready, which will be peer-reviewed by your classmates. This course offers a rare opportunity of intensive reading and research about immigrants in America, who, according to historian Oscar Handlin, "were American history."
Prerequisite
Open to History majors and minors only